Former staff accused the consortium that bought Clerys, Natrium Ltd, of treating staff "savagely" and said they are even "angrier" than last week when they learned of the shock closure. The company that ran Clerys was put into liquidation last Friday with the loss of up to 460 jobs.

Gerry Markey (53) who worked at Clerys for 34 years, was among those who gathered at Natrium's Harcourt Terrace office which it shares with D2 Private, whose boss Deirdre Foley is a director of the firm that bought Clerys.

"It's completely unacceptable, Natrium have shown complete disrespect and disregard for us," he said. "It's been a week since we were let go and there has still been no direct communication with our union.

"I don't think much of them (Natrium) saying they'll create that many jobs," Mr Markey added.